The chief author of the Patriot Act announced Friday that he’s joined a lawsuit seeking to stop the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of records, saying that the Obama administration is going far beyond what he intended when he wrote the law in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and chief sponsor of the Patriot Act, filed a amicus curiae brief on Wednesday saying he was misled about the scope of snooping the government intended to use the Patriot Act for, and said he would not have backed reauthorizing key parts of the law if he had known about it.

“This misinterpretation of the law threatens our First, Second and Fourth Amendment rights,” Mr. Sensenbrenner said in a statement after he filed his legal brief. “Congress never intended this. I will rein in the abuse of both the Patriot Act and the U.S. Constitution with the support of the American public.”

Progressives assailed Bush over the passage of the Patriot Act and its uses during his administration. Bush was sued (it was dropped) to discover methods but not for abuse. Meanwhile, these same progressives were silent on Obama’s expansion of the compromising act.